January 30, 2009

[Fritz]

[klimt]

qouted image removed

masterful

[Pete]

It's a little patronizing to say girl instead of ma'am or miss or whatever. Isn't there some historical context also. I rather think this is a reference to the civil rights movement than the author's own life.

That's exactly what the Raine Dog story is, or at least that's what I've picked up from the titbits mentioned about it over the last couple of years. It's a world in which animals are sentient, just another kind of people, except that (in the earliest time during the story, anyway) they're owned by humans. Slavery, really, in this context.

Over Raine's life, from puppy to the day she starts telling her story (in the first strip we saw) there's been a change in society, I guess similar to the Civil Rights movement. She was briefly happy, as a puppy who knew no better, with a kind owner, but she soon realised the injustice in her world. Some of the concept pictures suggest she may have been forced to leave her owner; not sure. There's various images of her being treated as a second-class citizen early in life - chained up outside a "No Pets" library, for instance. It looks like she was then heavily involved in some kind of hippyesque activist movement, campaigning for animals' rights (a rather different thing to "animal rights" in our world). Looks like she was arrested (and shaved) at some point during that struggle.

By the time we see her now, this struggle is over. Animals can walk the streets as free people on their own account, with trendy coat and glasses, stopping off for coffee. On the surface at least, they've won their equality. But there are still shades of the old world that haven't gone away - lazy thought patterns in coffee-shop servers being just one. For me, it's easy to see how powerful an effect this would have on Raine - thoughtlessly addressing someone who's fought her whole life for her kind's freedom, as if she were still a pet. Ouch.

It feels to me like there's a really powerful, serious story waiting to be told here. It's in no sense a comic strip, and it's not about being funny. I *really* hope DC can do it justice, and I only wish I could buy a book of the whole thing and read it right now, rather than waiting painfully week by week.

Pete

(I might have to stay away from this forum, too, if it remains full of people complaining that it's not Ozy and Millie and they don't get it and can someone spell out all the nuances for them like a GCSE English Lit study guide.)

[RocketGirl]

(I might have to stay away from this forum, too, if it remains full of people complaining that it's not Ozy and Millie and they don't get it and can someone spell out all the nuances for them like a GCSE English Lit study guide.)

Why do people on webboards DO this? You've just handed us all the ammunition we'll need if we ever want you to go away.

I'm not saying we will. But if you ever make enough of a nuisance of yourself, all we have to do is whinge until you get sick of us...and now we know it.
I mean, it's like you just came right out and said, "Oh, BTW...you Rebel Alliance folks? Um...look, okay...small thermal exhaust port, right below the main port, all right? Just FYI; and we're on our way t' kill ya, so..."

I mean, come ON...! I'm not telling these guys that I truly abhor wealth in all its forms and that if they want me to storm off in disgust all they'll have to do is fork over a couple hundred grand, now am I? No, of course not!

[Pete]

Why do people on webboards DO this? You've just handed us all the ammunition we'll need if we ever want you to go away.

:-) Heh. I don't know why people on webboards do it either. There's probably a sociology paper in there somewhere. I usually avoid being that kind of cliché, but I guess it slipped through this time.

I doubt the inhabitants of the board could actually deliberately coordinate the atmosphere at will anyway, and since I'm only a rather intermittent visitor I doubt the issue would arise.

Pete

[RocketGirl]

...sheesh; I was at least half joking.

[Dr. Sticks]

well, we don't really ever want people to go away, and I figure that if we did it would be our problem not Pete's

[AmigaDragon]

But then it occured to me because this is semi-autobiographical maybe it refers to a change of self, from David to Dana (did I spell it right?). But I could be thinking to hard :/ .

I started to have simular thoughts but it didn't really made sense to me.

Ok, now you lost me. Where did David and Dana come from? The only name I've seen in the strip so far is Raine.

I thought the same thing at first that she was refering to the "good boy/girl!" type of speech directed at dogs.

I...still think that's where that strip was going, personally. Maybe I'm wrong, but...someone coming at this strip for the first time with no idea of DCS's history wouldn't have anywhere else to go with that; it's a bit too meta to think it's a reference to gender, I think.

In the context of the last panels (with Raine's expression), I say it's the "good boy/girl!" type directed at dogs too.
The only DCS history I know is of drawing Ozzy & Millie

[datherman]

But then it occured to me because this is semi-autobiographical maybe it refers to a change of self, from David to Dana (did I spell it right?). But I could be thinking to hard :/ .

I started to have simular thoughts but it didn't really made sense to me.

Ok, now you lost me. Where did David and Dana come from? The only name I've seen in the strip so far is Raine.

The D in DCS.

[Dr. Sticks]

Raine is the dog, Rain is DCS. I'm pretty sure she doesn't go by Rain Luong anymore, though I may be mistaken.

[osprey]

Rain Luong makes me think of Roberto Luongo.

[/hockey]

[AmigaDragon]

Ok, now you lost me. Where did David and Dana come from? The only name I've seen in the strip so far is Raine.

The D in DCS.

OK, call me dense. I always thought O&M (and now RD) had a single writer/artist. is it a team instead like I've seen in other strips?

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Now playing on Winamp: Franz Schubert - Allegro from Piano Sonata in a minor (Classical Minnesota Public Radio)
via FoxyTunes

[datherman]

Single person. Former name of David Craig Simpson, new name of Dana Claire Simpson.

Caoimhin is suggesting that this "autobiographical" visual novel could correlate to DCS's transition from male to female.

[AmigaDragon]

Ok, I never had a clue DCS had gone through that change. Not everyone knows the details of a comic artist's personal life, many of us just read the strips and perhaps comment in the forum. As for Raine, all images in the few strips posted so far hint at always female, whether pup, adult or activist (or whatever).

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Now playing on Winamp: Castelnuovo-Tedesco - Prelude and Fugue in Bb (Classical Minnesota Public Radio)
via FoxyTunes

[The MAZZTer]

I found a guy named Dana.

Was watching some MacGyver and saw his name in the opening credits.

Just an oddity I thought I'd share. Not trying to make a comment on anything.